Lets talk Aliens!

[coolsurf6]

So i have been hearing a bunch of marine mains talking how overpowered the aliens are and the same for some alien players themselves. I am pretty neutral over the whole thing but i want some input from the community.

[darklizard45]

I only want to contain them in a cell surronded by force fields, electrified grilles and reinforced walls, that's all I want, for err... "RP reasons"

► Show Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_vzCMlzk2s

[Derpislav]

This absolutely won't end in 10 pages of salt and butthurt, nooo.

I'm torn because on one hand, the aliens are OP to a "just right" level, but then there's the fact combat huggers are still a thing... And combine with improved aliens into a steamroll.

[Surrealistik]

Insanely OP; the win/loss ratios speak for themselves. Ancient Runners 2 shotting marines into crit from full through helmets is ridiculous.

[jalen earl]

I'd say pretty OP right now. But marines aren't doing themselves any favours, so many times marines walk off alone or just straight up ignoring orders to storm the caves with 3 people because some dumbass walked off alone and is now calling for help from a nest.
New system of xeno upgrade and capped t3 i really like. maybe scaling back the crusher stats as they are insane right now

[Varnock]

Honestly I like it like this. Sure I die a lot more often, but it's not an easy win every game like it used to be. I've seen some marine majors too, despite how strong they are now, so they're certainly still possible.

Also they still get completely perforated by a battle rifle, so I remain a happy camper.

Those decaps are annoying as fuck from a surgery standpoint though.

[Solacian72]

I only want to contain them in a cell surronded by force fields, electrified grilles and reinforced walls, that's all I want, for err... "RP reasons"

► Show Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_vzCMlzk2s

I've tried multiple times as a CL. It turns out it's hard to catch a xenomorph and have it live. It's also hard to find infected volunteers to sacrifice themselves for SCIENCE

[darklizard45]

I've tried multiple times as a CL. It turns out it's hard to catch a xenomorph and have it live. It's also hard to find infected volunteers to sacrifice themselves for SCIENCE

That's why I want an already built in containment area, to make things much easier

[Durper]

Since the update for Xeno's yeah I agree I think Xenos are more OP then they need to be, but we're not allowed to say that or we'll trigger the staff.

Either buff the marines in a later update or Nerf the Xenos.

[Azmodan412]

I'd say limiting things slightly, like no more ancient runners. Cap it for Tier 1s at Mature, Elite for Tier 2s and Ancient for Tier 3s. Carriers/Hivelords count as Tier 2s.

Tier 1 (Drone, Runner, Sentinel): Young -> Mature
Tier 2 (Spitter, Hunter, Carrier, Hivelord): Young -> Mature -> Elite
Tier 3 (Ravager, Crusher, Praetorian, Boiler): Young -> Mature -> Elite -> Ancient.

The Queen has her own path.

[Steelpoint]

Half the time I don't know if individual Marines are acting badly because they're either wanting to avoid meta/power gaming or that they're really that bad.

The game right now seems to force the Marines to end the game as soon as possible. The longer the round goes on, the more and more powerful the Aliens will become. Seeing Ancient Hunters and similar going around two shotting Marines has solidified the idea that the Marines need to do more to end the round quicker.

Essentially as a round goes on the Aliens become more powerful while the Marines become weaker.

[Machofish]

As someone who tries to spend equal amounts of time between playing xenos and marines, I can say there's a serious community issue, as well as a balance issue. One big thing I've noticed is that the competency of marine players has gone way down, and grief is on the uptake - yesterday there was a string of 2-3 rounds in a row where the admins were sending OOC messages along the lines of "Who the hell breached engineering?" or, "Why is the CO trying to overload the supermatter rather than give their starting briefing?" and my own favourite, "If you were killed by <XYZ griefing> please Ahelp to be revived." On top of that, my last few marine rounds ended with me and some of my squadmates dying to friendly fire before even getting scratched by the enemy xenos - it's not very rewarding to RP getting thrown into hard crit for the umpteenth time due to getting drilled in the back with AP rounds and getting left to die. I feel as if this creates a vicious cycle, in which many of the more competent marine players decide not to play, causing a higher density of incompetence amongst the marine team.

This also has the effect of making xenomorph gameplay feel somewhat stale, too. Winning as a xeno feels like a premeditated conclusion - not something that requires very much skill or basic logic to pull off, and as such it tends to feel hollow and unrewarding. A xeno Queen would have to be mind-numbingly incompetent to genuinely hinder a xenomorph team's chances of victory.

This isn't an issue that exists purely between aliens and marines, either. A Predator round occurred yesterday, and each of the three Predators got soundly butchered within about 10-20 seconds of picking a fight with the xenos - and without so much as a single dead xenomorph to show for their efforts. This is also taking into account that the Predators were cutting loose with their most powerful weapons such as the plasma rifle and plasma caster.

[Boltersam]

The Aliens did get a HUUUUUGE buff from the update, and being able to slap on huggers just as usual doesn't help, as derp stated. However, I believe one of the biggest things hurting the marines right now, is themselves. They need to learn to follow orders and work together properly (AND STOP FETHING FF'ING, though this may never happen.) and you'll see a much higher level of competency. Also, can you please stop trying to C4 open the RO's office when the CO says you can get attachments AFTER briefing? Hell, if I could without it being grief, I'd have defended Cargo that round with my weapons. Jaysus Christ though, STOP FECKING RIOTING THE MINUTE SOMETHING LIKE THAT HAPPENS!

[jalen earl]

FF kills more than aliens at the moment. Last night took 2 separate shotgun blasts to the groin and an AP round to the face because a runner ran between the squad. Then was left to die when the ravager rocked up. Seriously fan the fuck out in a line and dont move in a wedge

[Warnipple]

I think balance for Aliens is fine but Marines are lacking in late game. When Aliens are attacking the ship. They're mostly fully evolved and fully upgraded. I don't think this is bad, I think this is great but Marines get nothing to counter it. Currently its only distress teams that help a bit but are unreliable and don't have a significant impact over the course of the game.

Instead I propose that the armory contain more and better weapons including rules on when the armory can be opened.

For example if the USS Sulaco is boarded then the armory can be released to soldiers and crew of the Sulaco. It should contain heavy duty weapons .50 cals and the such, sentries and the such to help the marines fight back the invaders. One thing that bugs me is that the RO can't order many good weapons. The only good one, in my opinion, is the custom built shotgun and the flamer. He can't order enough custom built shotguns to make a significant difference though.


Game progress is pretty good I think. It's usually, Marines land, Aliens push them back to the ship, Marines hold out. It seems to almost always end in this scenario. I would like to see a scenario where Marines land, Aliens push them back to the ship, Marines push Aliens back to Planet and then move from there.

[Steelpoint]

Is it normal for two slashes from a Mature Hivelord to cause a major bone fracture on a Marine, needing a twenty minute surgery to fix the fracture?

[Egorkor]

if the marines start to follow orders to the letter and become overall competent aliens will start getting rekt no matter how many buffs they recieve, which will cause a shitstorm of epic proportions coming from them.
besides, marines' incompetence is what adds to the atmosphere of a clusterfuck, to a degree though. the biggest problem right now is the FF, then goes the ancient runner/hunter meme and all that. not to mention that the marines are indeed forced to end this as soon as possible, which basically ruins the point of making a FOB and play defensively which is you know, how marines should play. you either rush the hive and die to the usual alien spam just like preupdate, or you make a FOB only to get raped by ancient runners.

[Joe4444]

people want us to try follow orders....in grey tide? please do tell how we get a bunch of 10 year olds to follow orders? Also following orders ain't gonna fix shit.No matter who you main aliens are OP at them moment. Following orders may help a little but its not gonna change much. ancient xenos 1 shot so marines have to try end the round quick...how do they do that though? The can't charge the hive because xenos will shout "META MAJOR VICTORY" etc. So if you have any ways to do this please do tell

[Fritigern]

I am completely fine with aliens being very strong and marines having a much smaller win ratio, and that is coming from someone who really only ever plays as a marine. I just don't think making every alien a murder machine was the best way going about doing it. More swarm gameplay, less unstoppable juggernauts. And facehuggers are still the most anti-fun gameplay mechanic on the whole server. If we ever get rid of them we can then start to give aliens some actual, fun gameplay mechanics to play around instead.

[Surrealistik]

Ancient Hivelord (me) and an Elite Empress (Wickedtemp) went from 2 vs ~30 marines + support staff to a major alien victory last night.

It was hard fought but that shouldn't be possible.

What allowed us to win is the fact that we were just able to grind the Marines down from a heavily fortified position with facehugger traps as I constantly replaced the walls that were destroyed and kept up Recovery pheromones, while supplying plasma as needed; between the Queen Screams (and an opportunistically charging Crusher who eventually overextended and died) and defensive stalling measures, about 6 marines ultimately got hugged and captured (3 initially, more as others were lured into trying to save them) while many more died, and that was the TSN turning point; the game snowballed in our favour from there.

I've said this repeatedly in the past: the Marines badly need better offensive tools to deal with the aliens before the aliens win via attrition from wounds and supply loss (ammo and helmets primarily), and this game was a perfect demonstration of the fact. Hivelord defensive spam is in particular problematic as they can easily replace obstacles many times over in the time it takes the Marines to destroy them.

[jalen earl]

On the flipside we had a marine major last night because we worked together and trapped an empress , 2 crushers and a hunter in the dropship on the planet and burned them up with flamers and nades

[Surrealistik]

On the flipside we had a marine major last night because we worked together and trapped an empress , 2 crushers and a hunter in the dropship on the planet and burned them up with flamers and nades

If they had a Hivelord, that probably would have played out differently assuming the aliens were disciplined enough to stall for screams/stomps and good opportunities.

[jalen earl]

If they had a Hivelord, that probably would have played out differently assuming the aliens were disciplined enough to stall for screams/stomps and good opportunities.

A good hivelord builds hives to trap and cut off marines. Lots of shitty ones make bad hives or door spam which sucks though.
It was 5 vs 4 We got the crap stomped and screamed out of us but what saved us was that we were spaced out and kept denying space with fire and nades so the crushers couldnt build momentum inside the shuttle.

[Surrealistik]

A good Hivelord in a siege situation does what's described above; wall off firing lines, set up facehugger traps, keep up recovery pheromones, and supply plasma to enable other castes to take care of business and grind the marines down. The sort of thing you are describing is exactly what we were up against, except it was closer to ~15 v 3 to start

[Steelpoint]

The new cuff changes added to restrained marines is the single worst feature ever added. Its now literally impossible for a Marine to reasonable escape.

I utterly fail to see the logic in this change, you may as well just force ghost a Marine the moment they get tied to a nest since that's a quicker fate.